Palestine Liberation Front

The Palestine Liberation Front is a Palestinian nationalist and Marxist-Leninist terrorist group founded in 1961 by Ahmed Jibril and Shafiq al-Hout. The PLF was incorporated into the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1967, but the PFLP again divided into the PFLP and the PLF and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) groups.

History
The Palestine Liberation Front was founded in 1961 by Ahmed Jibril and Shafiq al-Hout as a Marxist-Leninist and Palestinian nationalist terrorist group. In 1967 it merged with the Heroes of the Return and the Young Avengers to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but in April 1968 Jibril split to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), leaving George Habash's main PFLP organization. The PLF then split from PFLP-GC. When the PFLP-GC backed the Syrian Arab Republic in the Lebanese Civil War against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the PLF allied with the PLO, and the PLF and PFLP fought each other. In August 1977, a bombing of the PLF headquarters killed 200 people. Abu Abbas became the leader on 24 April 1977 after PFLP-GC deserters joined the PLF. On 7 October 1985 he launched the Achille Lauro hijacking, killing wheelchair-dependent Leon Klinghoffer and throwing him into the ocean. He escaped, and although the United States grounded his plane in Italy, Italy let him go and only later sentenced him to five life imprisonment terms. After the 1993 Oslo Accords, Abu Abbas abandoned terrorism and acknowledged Israel's right to exist, although the PLF continued plans to attack Israel. Abu Abbas was captured in 2003 during the Iraq War and died in US Army custody in 2004 of natural causes.